At Kilgraston, the ESOL Department gives specialist English tuition to those pupils whose first language is not English. Classes are small (there are usually five to eight pupils in a class) and are taught by a fully qualified teacher of English and French with many years' experience of teaching English as a foreign language.

All pupils follow courses that cover the four skills: Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking. In addition, the department has a well-stocked library of specialist readers and pupils are encouraged to read as widely as possible. the department also uses computer technology including appropriate language learning software.

For those pupils who intend to stay several years at Kilgraston, the ESOL Department can offer specialist support to enable them to follow the same timetable as their peers as well as classes leading to the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English and the I.E.L.T.S Examination. For pupils whose stay is of one year or less the department offers courses leading to the Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Preliminary English Test and First certificate in English) and the LCCI Examination - Spoken English for Business and Commerce.

In conjunction with the Careers Department, the ESOL Dept has many years' experience of preparing pupils for university entrance, especially for medicine.

Pupils in the ESOL department also benefit from the care of the ESOL Support Group - a group of older British pupils whose remit is to help and support the ESOL pupils during their stay at Kilgraston. The Support group and ESOL teacher organise a number of international celebrations for pupils during the year. These include the Mexican Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the celebration of Chinese New Year, a British Christmas Lunch and the ESOL Picnic. Pupils are also given the opportunity to attend the theatre, concerts and cinema and to take part in whole school celebrations such as St Andrew's Day and Burn's Night.